After observing the roots' capability, James thought of upgrading the house came out to be a nice option. He thought of upgrading it again. There was a system notification that halted his thoughts.
"Spiritual Energy Strands -7"
James's curiosity to upgrade his house turned into is greed. He then left for hunting more Spiritual Energy Strands.
He killed every zombie that came in his sight. It was only a few hours, and he discovered that there was no zombie left in the neighborhood. He asked the system about his Spiritual Energy Strands.
"Spiritual Energy Strands – 7-->25"
It was not sufficient for the next upgrade, which required a total of 70 Spiritual Energy Strands. He went back home, revising his plans again.
As soon as he went inside, he was questioned about the previous earthquake. James explained it in every detail with his enhancing skill, which was a lie.
James told everyone about the status of the neighborhood. He also asked everyone to find a suitable weapon for their protection and give it to him so that he can enhance them.
Later, Alita passed on her surgical knife to James. He was shocked to know that his parents didn't give him anything. He knew that his mother wouldn't even if she were forced to, but his father who was a former army soldier would also refuse to his request was a shock he couldn't take.
James had no choice but to raise a question.
"Mom, Dad. Why didn't you both pass on your equipment to me?"
His father spoke with a care free smile, "I would like to have a machete, and we don't have it at our home."
When his father stopped talking, his mother spoke with her eyes constantly changing directions towards the house's interior, "I would like to construct this house into a fortress, so I don't need a weapon."
He was dumbfounded with their replies.
He immediately went outside to pick up the knifes lying on the street in front. Furthermore, he thought of enhancing the knifes too, along with the surgical knife and his cracked baseball bat that survived somehow from an F-rank Zombie's teeth.
He placed the surgical knife on his table and asked, "System, how much Spiritual Energy Strands do I need to enhance this knife?"
*Ding*
"Host, Small objects need only 1 Spiritual Energy Strand for enhancement. Previously, due to the size of your house, it needed a lot of Spiritual Energy Strands."
When James read the system's notification, he had already made a plan to enhance all of them equally.
He placed his hands on the surgical knife and spoke softly, "Enhance!"
There was only a simple notification of Spiritual Energy Strands deducting, and there were no changes in its appearance other than the knife becoming more sharp.
"Spiritual Energy Strands – 25-->24"
He enhanced the knife four more times. At the last enhancement, the knife had developed an additional effect that could both decrease and increase in blood loss according to the user's will.
After thinking about his father's request for the machete, he thought of enhancing the two knives he picked up from the street for both his father and Alita.
He enhanced them quickly, but they had developed different effects at their fifth enhancement. One knife had developed the effect of paralyzing with a 10% chance, while the latter one had an effect of inflicting damage twice with a 10% chance.
The knife with double damage was suitable for his father and the latter was for Alita's defense because of the effect of paralysis.
"Spiritual Energy Strands – 24-->10"
He handed over the weapons to everyone.
As the sun rose in the morning, James went out early to cover more distance grinding more zombies. He only found a few zombies left in the neighborhood, so he lured them towards the house.
He had discovered last night that his house could grow its roots as long as it could absorb more zombies.
Likewise, he went out of the neighborhood in search of more prey. He had gone towards the places with the least gatherings so that he could escape easily.
There was a general store which was in a complete mess. It was at least twice as large as the previous one. When he entered the store's door, a system alert popped up.
*Ding*
"You have entered the F-rank zombie's lair. Annihilate the zombies.
Reward – None
Failure – Death".
James was disheartened to see that there was no reward. It was a feeling of 'hardworking to get nothing'.
He had already stepped inside the store with making a lot of noise to attract the zombies. There were 5 zombies dashing towards him. It didn't take much time to solve the normal zombies. James was using his half cracked baseball bat to kill the zombies.
It was visible that the bat was going to break when it comes in contact with the F-rank zombie. After an hour worth of killing, there were no zombies left in the store. He was shocked to look at the Spiritual Energy Strands he had collected.
"Spiritual Energy Strands-10-->54"
After closing the system's screen, he started to look at his half dead state bat, which was covered in zombie blood. James placed his hand on it and started enhancing it. The blood on the bat was fading away at an alarming rate during the enhancement. It didn't change much. He enhanced it 4 more times to make it have an additional effect.
There was no additional effect. But the bat had turned dark red for some reason after its fifth enhancement.
"Spiritual Energy Strands-54-->49"
He enhanced it 5 more times. Even on its tenth enhancement, it didn't develop any additional effect, but the normal baseball bat's name on the system panel had changed to 'Blood Sucking Baseball bat'.
"Spiritual Energy Strands – 49-->44"
James had a rough idea of what had happened to its bat. It was none other factor but the zombie blood on its surface body.
While enhancing the baseball bat, the zombie blood was integrated.
James enhanced it again 5 times. On its fifth enhancement, the bat had grown very small pointy thorns curved inwards. These curved thorns could easily tear off a piece of flesh when it came in contact with the skin.
"Spiritual Energy Strands – 44-->39"
James was now pretty satisfied with the enhancement. He walked towards the center of the general store for the F-rank zombie.